Royalty Reading Challenge 2014

What’s a reading challenge, you ask? Well, I am asking any of you who are willing and have the interest to read a book during March that has a royal connection. You can read a biography of Queen Elizabeth or of Louis XIV, a picture book about Duchess Kate, a biography of King Ludwig, or even a fictional book about a totally made-up king or queen.

I’m just hoping to inspire myself to read a few royal books, and I’d like to learn more by reading about your reading as well.

Why a royalty challenge? As most of you know, royalty is a topic that has fascinated me for years, beginning when Princess Diana came onto the scene back in 1980. There’s something about royalty: they live such supposedly grand and interesting lives, up on a pedestal. Of course, often we learn that they’re all too human — but maybe that makes them even more compelling. What would it be like to have pedigree and power bestowed upon you at birth, regardless of anything you had done or not done to earn it?

At this point, I’m planning to read Prince William: The Man Who Will Be King by Penny Junor — it’s a William biography I haven’t yet read. And, in homage to the one who started me on the royal road, The Diana Chronicles by Tina Brown. Honestly, at this point I find it hard to believe that I could learn anything about Diana that I don’t already know. Still, I will enjoy revisiting her life again.

If you’d like to join in, you can leave a comment about what book (or even what topic) you’d like to read about.

On March 27, I’ll put up another post with my thoughts on the royal books I read. I’ll include a link-up there for you to link to a post you’ve written about the book you read. If you don’t have a blog, that’s okay: I’d love to read your thoughts in the comments on that post. Oh, and I don’t want to forget to thank my talented daughter Sophie for designing the blog button at the top of this post. Feel free to copy/paste it to your blog and royalty posts.

March ought to be a royally good month!

If you’re a blogger and would like to write a post about the book you plan to read, feel free to link up below any time this month.